Floating bearing.



G, M. BICKNELL & H. H. G. WEED.

FLOATING BEARING.

APPLICATION FILED iULY15.19l8.

1,300,559. Patented Apr. 15,1919.

Haj 656. 14 660.

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Jbearings adapted for application to rotating shafts, and, more particularly. to shafts UNITED ATE PATENT QFEIcE.

.erzonern ML'LBIQKNELL, on jI J ETBOITfMICHIGAN, ND-licence c. .5 WEE-1); OF ST} mm,

MIssouRIfAssI'enoRs lmelrzrfanFch'itrnn CARBURETER continuation f-srfi' iiouis,

MISSOURI, A- connonAmon or vrissocm.

,To allwhom'itmeycmiem;

- Bel it known that we, G GE Bren- ,N'ELIi and HUGH H. QIVE' mcitizens of the United States, and, residing' at' Detroit, in the county of 'Wayne,Michigan, and at St. Louis, in the county of; S t.- Louis,Missouri, respectively, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in F loatin Bearings, ofwhichithe following isa speci cation.

This invention relates to" attachments for which-are subjected to high speed rotation. The primary object of the invention is the prevention of the Whippingofshafts.

The generally accepted idea of the socalled whipping is the ,tendency of high speed shaftingto travel, in response to centrifugal force, in. a circle larger than the diameter of the shaft; This circular travel is in addition to. the rotation of the shaft under applied power. The's'hafts are ordinarily held'in" fixed bearings, generally at least two innumbenf and thepor'tions of the shaft which are subjected to the whipping action are located between the fixed bearings. The circle of travel of the whipping portions" would manifestly be around a center whichis 'the center of the shaft when t. s. a rest; 1; :I wi l .bey e y r d y understood that the whipping action isexv ceedingly destructive to the fixed bearings and to the shaft itself.

As before stated, a whipping shaft travels in a circle larger than its own diameter. Our conception is that any discouragement of the tendency of the shaft to travel in a true circle, by destroying or retarding its continuity of movement, or impulse in a fixed circular direction, will tend to cause the shaft to more nearly assume its normal straight alinement.

The invention is especially adapted for automobile shafting but it is to be clearly understood that it may be advantageously used on any high speed shafts. In automobile drive shafts a very large percentage of the destructive wear on universal joints is occasioned by shaft whipping. This wear has caused the adoption of heavier drive shafts, of abnormal diameter, which manifestly do not whip to so great an extent, because less resilient, but has occasioned a i Applicatimtlfllediulilifi,1918.- Serialfio. ,2e5, 0 13.

FLOATING BEARiNG.

very material increase in cost'of production.

. Thesej heavier shafts are also "objectionable I I Specification of Letters Patent.

in thatthey add to the" burdenbfthe iiniversal oint. Wit-lithe use of ouifinvention,

.along drive shaft of normal diameter will show a smaller degree-ofwhipping tendency, and consequentlyf'cause les'svv'earjupon the bearings; than will a shaft of the j'saine haveobserved that the whippingjad tlon is'better retarded by opposing unequal resistance to the tendency offQthe' shaftfto ilength andof abnormally large diameter;

swing ina circle. Afixediresistancejof' the tendency to travel'to the left, for instance,

should be met'by either a. greater or less resistance to travel to the right. Moreover, it- 1s obvious that,'in'order fortheshaft to travelina circular-path, the whipping pornoted that, if equalresistance is moderately applied to'inovement in all directions, the

'tion must 'moveupwardl'y and downwardly Whipping action will jnotfbefentirely elimi nated. '7 I Our invention therefore, by providing unequal resistance to shaft movement in different d1rect10ns, rendersf itjitlflle circular "or v whlpplng movement 'imposslble, oflering at h same e n res t c t the ro nvemovemefitwithimh Hearin s.

" In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, we have illustrated a preferred embodiment of our invention, and have chosen to illustrate the invention applied to the drive shaft of an automobile.

.In the drawings Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the device; and

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. 1..

The device preferably comprises a split bearing 1, surrounding the shaft 2, the shaft of course being freely rotatable within the bearing.

Fixed to any convenient portion of the automobile, such as a cross-member, is a bracket 3, adapted to support a dash-pot consisting of a cylinder 4 and a piston 55. The piston 5 is connected in the usual manner to a shaft 6 which is integrally or otherwise secured to the bearing 1. A relief port 7 is provided, preferably as shown. I

Thabaaete', as shown in i .2, carries a second dash-pot construction comprising a cylinder 8 having a-cpiston 9. -This d-ash-pot isp sit e e t a an t9 the d -P comprised by the cylinder and piston 5, and

is of smaller diameter and presents less resistance. A relief port 10 is provide'd,'as shown. 7 To the piston 9 is connected a shaft 11:; which ispivotally connected at 12in) a split collar 13 embracing the shaft 6. v

From the foregoing it-will be clear that we have devised a means for resisting both the 'late'ral'and verticalniover'nents of the bearm Both the dash-pots when rigidly is'notas'great as that offered by the dash-pot pistonio within thee'ylinder l-,*in the'eustoinary "dash p'ot manner which is unnecessary "to further explain. Any lateral'movement of the bearing will cause a similar movement in the same direction to be "impartedto the shaftfG; thence to the collar' -1'3,"to*theshaft 11 and i'tothefpis'to'n 9, but this movement 'willflikewise "be resisted by the dash pot composed of" the cylinder 8 and piston 9, as will "be understood This resistance however composed of the cylinder 4 and piston 5.

Consequently less resistance is opposed to lateral movement of the bearing thanis offered to verticalmovement' thereof,

It is obvious that in actual practice of the invention, lubricating devices, such as oil cupsfshouldj be applied to all points where there is frictional contact." Since these-devices form no part ofour invention, they are s'hown-in all where' they would be necessary.

Various modificat ons "of the invention anay be suggested to those skilled in 'the art to. w-h1ch the invention '-ap -pertains,{b1it we desire to secure by Letters Patenten such *embodiments thereof as fall fairly within the scope of the appended claims.

1111;; is obvious that equally good results might be accomplished by mounting the "largefldash pot a t the side, and the smaller dash-pot at the top, and the following claims 7 are to be construedaccordin'gly. I'nthis' position the l'argerdash-pot would con-trolthe lateral movements of the bearing andthe smaller dash potwould govern the vertical 4 movements.

"1. device of 'fch'aracter described comprising; combination with-a rotatable shaft,a"iioatajble bearing engaging the shaft;

a dash-pot connected to the-tearing "and" "adapted "to interp'ose 'pneumaticalily cush- "ioned resistance to vertical movementtlier'eof, a supplemental dash-pot adapted to eitherdirection.

2. A device of thecharabter described com rising, in eombinationwith a otatable shaft, a1 floatablebearing engaging the shaft,

of means presentin-g pneumatically-cush- "resist lateral movement"ofthebearing in p ion'ed resistance to vertical movement of the bearing and "other-means presenting-a similar "resistance to a i 'rd' gree n lateral 'move'm'ent of 'th '-b lntestimony whereof 'wej alfix our signatunes.

{GEORGE "M, BTGKNEELJ I HJ-U EED. 7 

